Resilient plastic shoe heel protector



Dec. 10, 1968 M. D KESSLER RESILIENT PLASTIC SHOE HEEL PROTECTOR FiledOct. 25, 1966 FIG. 2

1 FIG. 3

f f f in INVENTOR MARVIN DONALD KESSLER %M/ ATTORNEY United StatesPatent 3,414,990 RESILIENT PLASTIC SHOE HEEL PROTECTOR Marvin DonaldKessler, 60 Ladue Estates E., Creve 'Coeur, Mo. 63141 Filed Oct. 25,1966, Ser. No. 589,769 4 Claims (Ci. 36--73) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREA resilient plastic heel plate with an adherent backing is designed tobe applied by a stapling gun by unskilled persons, such as shoe clerks.The wearing surface of the heel plate has a lateral staple-accommodatinggroove, and a pair of spaced-apart locator recesses one adjacent to eachend of the groove. These locator recesses receive projection on theundersurface of the stapling gun to assure driving the staple precisely.

The present invention relates to protective articles for affixing toshoe heels to avoid wear, and particularly to an article suitable forhandy application in stores which sell new shoes.

Customers for womens shoes are concerned about the protection of boththe appearance and continued usefulness of the heels. Womens casualshoes, for example, may use heels in which wearing qualities have beensacrificed for attractive appearance and low manufacturing cost. Theattachment of protective plates to such attractive low-cost heels mustbe made after sale of the shoes but preferably prior to initial wearing.Yet shoe stores do not possess the equipment of shoe repair shops, norcould a sales clerk operate such equipment.

Heretofore protective plates molded of resilient tough plastic materialhave been sold in some shoe stores for adhesive attachment to the flatsurface of new heels. Some of these plates have been furnished withstaples, and include a groove in which the staple may be driven.However, neither the shoe salesman nor the customer can satisfactorilydrive such staple with a hammer. In addition to the problem of finding asuitable support to insert Within the shoe, the resiliency of such aprotective plate, when struck by a hammer, cushions the blow to makedriving difiicult and the driven staple insecure. Accordingly there is aneed for such a resilient protective plate which may be affixed swiftly,securely and entirely reliably by shoe sales clerks.

The principle purpose of the present invention is to provide such aresilient protective plate-like article, which may be adhered in placeon a shoe heel and then, while the shoe is held in hand, secured by ahand-held stapling gun, with perfect alignment. Other purposes will beapparent from the disclosure which follows.

Summarizing the present invention generally, I provide a tapering heelplate-like article with locator recesses adjacent to astaple-accommodating groove near its thicker rear edge. To drive thestaple I use a simple conventional hand-held stapling gun equipped withprojections spaced from its driving blade correspondingly to the spacingof the locator recesses from the groove. Even though the presentprotective article may be quite thick (which may be necessary toaccommodate recesses for locator projections of such a gun) I have foundthat the driving force of the stapling gun will not be opposed by theresiliency of its entire thickness; instead only about half of suchresiliency must be overcome. This results in seating the staple firmlyin the bottom of the groove by the hand-held stapling gun, without theexpected use of shoe-repair store equipment.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

ice

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a heel plate embodying the presentinvention, in position for attachment by a stapling gun on the heel ofan inverted shoe, shown in phantom lines.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, a womens shoe a having a relatively low flat heel b is showninverted for attachment to the lower heel surface 0 of the plate-likearticle generally designated 10 embodying the present invention. Thearticle 10 may be made of any of the adherable, resilient tough plasticmaterials which are known to be useful for protecting shoes from wearand are readily formed by molding. As shown in the drawings hereof thearticle 10 is plate-like in the sense that it has two opposed majorsurfaces, the first of which is a flat surface 11 (the upper surface ofthe article when the shoe is worn) which is preferably coated with anadhesive and protected by a strip of paper or the like (not shown), tobe removed at the time the article 10 is applied and adhered to the heelsurface c. Its other major surface is the Wearing surface 12 which maybe surrounded by a slightly projecting circumferential ridge 13, shownin the enlarged cross-sectional views 2, 3 and 4. In the preferredembodiment shown the plate-like article 10 is somewhat kidney-shaped,and tapers in thickness from a thinner, concavely indented forward edge14 to a thicker somewhat sloping arcuate rear edge 15.

Depressed within the wearing surface 12 in the thicker portion adjacentto the arcuate rear edge 15 is molded a laterally-extendingstaple-accommodating groove 20. Its groove bottom surface 21 is formedat such depth from the wearing surface 12 as will exceed the thicknessof a staple d; and the length of the groove 20 somewhat exceeds that ofthe staple; therefore the staple when firmly driven will be recessedfrom the wearing surface 12 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 even without anycompressive deflection of the portion of the article 11} beneath thestaple d. The depth of the groove 20 from the wearing surface 12 to thegroove bottom 21 is therefore preferably approximately half thethickness of that portion of the article 10 in which the groove 20 islocated, or between forty percent and sixty percent of such thickness.

Spaced laterally from each other and to each side of of the groove 20are left and right locator recesses 30. While as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4these are relatively close to the circumferential ridge 13, they do notmaterially weaken the 'article, being in the thicker portion near itsarcuate sloping rear edge 15. In their form preferred for preserving thestrength of the article 10, the locator recesses 30 are circular,somewhat tapering, depressions have a draft angle suitable for molding,and a diameter and depth as great as necessary to fully accommodate thelocator projections of a stapler gun, hereafter described. Because oftheir relatively small cross-sectional area, as shown in FIG. 3, theirdepth may be nearly the entire depth of the article 10.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown fragmentarily in dashed lines, andraised above the plate-like article 10 and in registered position forstapling, the rectangular driving end of a stapling gun e of the typeincluding a vertically reciprocating driving blade f. At the base of thedriving gun end e and projecting to the left and right sides of theedges of the driving blade f are the pair of locator projections g,referred to above. From FIG. 1 it will be noted that the spacing of theleft and right locator recesses 30 with respect to the groove 20correspond to the spacing of the pair of locator projections g withrespect to the blade 1.

The article thus described is used in a shoe store as follows: After newshoes have been sold and the customer expresses the desired to have theheels protected by the plate-like article It), the strip of covering isremoved from the adherent flat surface 11, and the article 10 placed inposition on the heel b substantially as shown in FIG. 1. The sales clerkor other store employee then grasps the stapling gun by hand positionsthe rectangular driving end of the stapling gun e so that the locatorprojections g are in registration with the left and right 10- catorrecesses 30. Then he inserts the pair of locator projections g into theleft and right locator recesses 30 and actuates the gun; when so doinghe may merely hold the shoe a in one hand and the gun e in the other.There results a secure driving of the staple :2! through the groovebottom 21 into the heel b. The staple d is seated firmly against thebottom 21 and recessed well below the wearing surface 12. It will holdfirmly despite the resiliency of the plastic material. The amplethickness of the areuate sloping rear edge gives the plate-like article10 suitable resiliency and provides for long wear; yet the staple dholds much more firmly than if driven through this thickness of theresilient material.

If it were attempted to drive such a staple d into a similar groove byordinary methods, as by a hammer, the cushioned resistance encounteredwould be so great as to provide a spring-back force which would cushionthe blow. If a staple were driven into an equal thickness withoutprecisely locating against the base of the groove 21, there would be asimilar cushioned resistance to the driving of the staple which wouldrender it insecure, and further a spring-like resistance built up bycompressing this thickness, which spring-like resistance would, underordinary usage, draw the staple d out beyond the surface 12.

These difliculties have been completely overcome by the use of thelocator recesses 30 to register the gun e prior to driving. The drivingforce of the blade f is resisted only by the elasticity of thatproportionate part of the material from the groove bottom 21 to theadherent surface 11, as illustrated in FIG. 4. Thus, if the groovebottom is precisely at the mid-point of such thickness, the cushionedresistance encountered in driving the staple d by the preciselyregistered stapling galn e is only half that which would be encounteredif driven through the entire thickness of the cross-section shown inFIG. 4. in which the groove is located.

The firm driving and secure anchoring of the staple d makes it possiblefor shoe clerks to perform the attachment of the present article instores which have no shoerepair equipment. The shoe is hand-held and thesimple familiar small stapling gun e is likewise hand-held This resultwas not to be expected from prior constructions and practices.

Detailed modifications of the present article may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this invention,

which therefore should not be narrowly construed but rather as fullyco-extensive with the claims hereof.

I claim:

1. For use as a protector to be secured to a shoe heel both adherentlyand by a reciprocating blade-type stapling gun equipped with a pluralityof locator projections,

a plate-like article formed of resilient tough plastic material havingas its two major surfaces a flat adhering surface and a wearing surface,the wearing surface having formed therein, to a depth only part of thedistance between said surfaces,

a laterallyextending staple-accommodating groove, and a pair ofgun-locator recesses spaced laterally from each other, one beingadjacent to and spaced from each end of said groove,

whereby to align such stapling gun for driving a staple of lesserthickness than the groove into said groove and to recess it from saidWearing surface.

2. A plate-like article as defined in claim 1, characterized by:

having a thickness tapering from a thinner forward edge to a thickerrear edge,

the groove and locator recesses being spaced in the thicker portionadjacent to the rear edge,

whereby the increment in thickness over that of the forward edgeprovides added depth for accommodating the groove and locator recesses.

3. A plate-like article as defined in claim 1,

the depth of said groove from the wearing surface to the groove bottomsurface being approximately half the thickness of the portion of thearticle in which said groove is located,

whereby the cushioned resistance encountered on driving the staple bythe blade of such stapling gun, as located by its locator projections,is reduced to approximately half that encountered if driven against theresistance of the entire thickness of such portion.

4. A plate-like article as defined in claim 1,

the said groove depth being between forty percent and sixty percent ofthe thickness of the portion of the article in which said groove islocated.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 341,347 5/1886 Pierce 36-731,172,392 2/1916 Robinson 3675 1,181,807 5/1916 Solomon 36-73 FOREIGNPATENTS 603,309 1/1926 France.

304,538 3/ 1918 Germany.

3,315 1887 Great Britain.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

A. R. GUEST, Assistant Examiner.

